Le fortificazioni alla moderna del codice Ashburnham 361 di Francesco di Giorgio Martini: metodologie per l’interpretazione dei disegni del Trattato di architettura civile e militare

This study is part of a large interdisciplinary project that aims to create an innovative methodology for interpreting the drawings in the manuscript versions of Francesco di Giorgio Martini's “Treatise on Architecture”. The current research focuses on Ashburham codex 361, preserved at the Laurentian Library in Florence. Although many studies have examined the textual part of the treatise, an in-depth analysis of the extensive illustrative apparatus that accompanies and clarifies the text is still lacking. Our attention is focused in particular on the opening section of the codex, which deals with military architecture. The methodology of analysis developed consists of three main stages: a critical reading of the text based on previous studies; a detailed examination of the drawings in the codex, trying to link each illustration to the corresponding textual part; and finally a comparison between the architecture represented in the codex and some contemporary fortifications. A preliminary result of this research was the graphic reconstruction of the architectural plans proposed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini. This process led to the interpretation of the different architectural types illustrated in the treatise, including the creation of three-dimensional models of the described and drawn structures. These models made it possible to verify the effectiveness of the fortifications in both attack and defense situations.